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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

just a sampling of waffles on the street in Brussels

Too Good to be true!

edit ** Let the documentation begin! ** editWhat once was lost now is found!

After writing this post I got an email from a gal in Oklahoma telling me how she knew about a FREE program online that might be able to find my photos. She emailed me the link and Voila! I got all of them back but about 5 - it also recovered a bunch of deleted photos from last year, so this thing really works. Alisa I can not thank you enough for emailing me!!

so here I go again but with photos (i still can not believe I have the photos!!!)

waking up in Germany to someone at the hotel knocking on the door at 10:00 am telling us we were supposed to check out and us begging for another hour since we were all zonked and 6 hours behind and us scrambling to get packed

Jeff pulling up with the rental car- A Passat Wagon... ahhh!Fahrvergnügen I love you!

photos of the awesome new buildings at the Ramstein air base. If you have been there before and had to camp out in the airport it now makes it so lush to do so.

We ate at the new Macaroni Grill - knowing this would be the last time our kids would eat a meal at a restaurant

drove to the military base outside of Belgium. Jeff punched in the wrong address so we were driving through these little one way roads that barely fit a car and had bikers on them. It was so funny and I had the best photos of mailboxes and cows (those still did not make it)

our great room at the military base hotel (the place was brand new and so nice)

our Ramen noodles dinner in the room and crashing with exhaustion from our travel

shopped at the commissary for groceries to take to the Netherlands

spent the day in Brussels

ate waffles on the street

saw the little peeing boy (which was awesome for me. I have a travel bracelet from my Grandmother with a charm from every country she ever went to. She traveled the world. One of the charms is the Manneken Pis and for years I never knew where it was from, so I was thrilled to have found it and be standing in front of it.

touched the gold for good luck

searched for good Belgium chocolate and getting something that ended up tasting like a bad box of See's candy

Annie Kate and I took hilarious photos of us with chocolate in our teeth (note CB in the back screaming!)

waiting in line for 30 minutes for french fries while I desperately searched for a bathroom for Sally Jane

we found the grossest bathroom with no seat and were thrilled

I talked Jeff into turning on the freeway so we could go to the Atoniom. It was built for the world fair and actually really neat. The guide book said don't go in if you are afraid of heights or claustrophobic. I have no idea why I went in there. It was not as bad as Rick Steve's described.you get to go inside each ball and they are connected by escalators

I had a great photo of Annie Kate on the large escalator going between each sphere.

the gift shop was awesome and had all these funky gifts. I love this photo of Annie Kate and would make a great cover photo for a set of stationery for her. They had lots of Smurfs there too, I didn't know till we got back that Smurfs started in Belgium. True?

our drive to Amsterdam and the girls exhausted and zonked out in the back (well one of the other photos they were actually asleep)

a few photos I forgot about. When we pulled off on the side of the road to take Annie Kate to the bathroom in the trees we saw this trucker fixing his satellite dish to get a better T.V. reception in his truckSally Jane was not having a good day and we were totally regretting our decision to NOT bring a stroller.

Then we found our favorite shop from France a few years ago that sells beautiful suckers and...then she was cured for the entire day!

Brussels window shopping was entertaining and made you hungry.

I can almost smell it by looking at the photos

These books were everywhere!

and I would have totally forgotten my crazy Euro shirt I wore that day. I had bought it before I left but did not try it on. Then got in the car and noticed they have the cut out sleeve (not my style) but it seemed very European and funky. Jeff teased me all day and asked me if I wanted to go to the disco-tec that night.the Grand Plaace was amazing!

Next chapter: our amazing apartment in Amsterdam and seeing the most important diary in the world.

Again Alisa - thank you thank you - I hope a box on your doorstep soon will some how show my gratitude!

I forgot you guys were going to Brussels! We LOVED stopping off in Brussels on our way to Africa two years ago. Belgian waffles, Mannequen Pis, Grand Place...we feel like we traveled back in time looking at your pictues. Can't wait to read about Amsterdam! Love you Kristi :)

Looks so fun. Why didn't you buy one of those bright colored Manneken Pis? I think it would have made a great addition to your household decour. How about on the table by the front door. :) Can't wait to hear about Amsterdam!!!

YAY! I'm glad you got your photos back! At Grande Place during summer months of even numbered years they cover the majority of the floor with flower arranged into patterns. It's amazing. I'm glad you got to try some of the delicious treats of Belgium. I think the only reason I didn't put on 100 lbs there was because of walking everywhere!